City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

More documents

Recommendations

Info

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2One of the first post Second World War factories to open in Darebin was the MMBW’s PipeDepot near Chifley Drive Preston in 1945. Here large water pipes were coated with enamel toprotect them from corrosion. This required the construction of a long shed that couldaccommodate 40 foot (12.2 m) pipes. The Depot made the fittings and branch bends for theUpper Yarra pipeline. The factory closed in the 1980s (Jones, 1995:38).The Pipe Depot was in the vanguard of the move of industry away from the central parts ofDarebin to the outskirts, where previously little development had occurred. In the 1940s thelocal councils began defining zones for industrial development. Preston Council designated oneindustrial zone on the Darebin Creek flats in the south east and another at Reservoir in thenorth west. Both were vacant areas, flat rocky land that was difficult to drain, but consideredmore suitable for industry than housing.Figure 25Sutton Tool andGauge ManufacturingHigh Street, Northcote[DHE: ID 850]4.4 Melbourne’s water supplyDarebin has a special place in the history of Melbourne’s water supply because it is situated onthe gently sloping plain that enabled the water to flow directly down to Melbourne from theYan Yean Reservoir, without the aid of pumps. In 1853, the Victorian Water SupplyCommissioners acquired a long strip of land from Darebin landowners for the pipeline, whichwas constructed along what later became St Georges Road. The Yan Yean Reservoir andpipeline were completed in 1857. Problems with water quality and pressure led to theconstruction of a service reservoir near the pipeline’s half-way mark at Preston in 1864. Thiswas Melbourne’s first service reservoir, hence the name of the suburb Reservoir. The reservoirwas constructed by excavation and embankment, using the same construction techniques as forYan Yean, and was lined with bluestone pitchers, presumably quarried from nearby basaltdeposits. The reservoir’s capacity was 16 million gallons (72.8 megalitres) - sufficient to supplyMelbourne for three days at that time (Dingle and Doyle, 2003).Figure 26Constructing Preston Reservoir[DHE: ID 880]52
VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYFigure 27Valve house at Preston Reservoir[Context, 2007]A caretaker’s cottage was built at Preston Reservoir in 1865 and the Preston office of theMMBW was opened in 1900. When the Maroondah system was opened in 1891 the aqueductterminated at the Junction Basin in Cheddar Road Preston, and the water was then piped toPreston Reservoir. As Melbourne’s demand for water increased in the twentieth century twonew concrete service reservoirs were added on the east side of High Street in 1909 and 1913.The second reservoir was constructed by John Monash’s Reinforced Concrete & Monier PipeConstruction Company, using the relatively new reinforced concrete technology. The Prestonreservoirs were for many years a vital link in the distribution of Melbourne’s water supply(Dingle and Doyle, 2003; Ritchie 1922).Although the pipeline traversed Darebin from end to end, it was of little benefit to most ofDarebin’s population for many years. Darebin’s local water supply will be outlined in Chapter5.4.5 Altering the environmentThe cost of developing Darebin’s resources and establishing its industries was the exploitationand transformation of its natural resources, landforms and streams. The results of theseactivities on the natural environment and heritage are discussed in Chapter 8.GrazingAs noted in Chapter 1, most of Darebin is thought to have been covered by grassy woodland(Oates & Taranto, 2001). In the first few years of the European settlement of Melbourne, largenumbers of sheep were imported from Tasmania 13 , and the good grazing lands in Darebinhardly could have escaped being used as a staging ground for livestock. Sheep grazing veryquickly altered the composition of the grassland understorey. The sheep preferentially grazedthe softest most nutritious feed - the yam daisies, lilies and orchids. There are reports of sheepscraping with their hooves to get to eat yam daisy tubers.Most of the land in Northcote was only sporadically grazed by the landowners as landspeculation and urban development set in, although others took advantage of the free pasturageavailable. Richard Howitt, who farmed at Alphington in the 1840s, noted that Melbourne’scattle were herded out to unoccupied lands every day to graze, and then herded back at night,and saw of his neighbours graze dairy cows for free on unoccupied private lands (Howitt,1945). One property that was continuously grazed was Pender's Grove, the unsuccessful boomsubdivision and closer settlement that was still largely undeveloped in the 1920s.The grazing history of Darebin means that remnants of the grassy native understoreyvegetation are very rarely anything near intact.13 41,332 head of sheep were in the Melbourne settlement by Nov 183653
Page 1 and 2:
City of DarebinHeritage StudyVolume
Page 3 and 4:
CONTENTSVOLUME 1: THEMATIC ENVIRONM
Page 5 and 6:
VOLUME 1: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HI
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10: VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HI
Page 59: VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HI
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
3.14.1: Building to suit Australian
Page 169 and 170:
7.6.3: Policing Australia7.6.4: Dis
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
CRITERION E:VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVI
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179:
show all

City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?